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I was hosting my friend for two weeks during the fall, which was great because I enjoy having friends over! However that meant having a little less time to fish. So when my friend left for the airport, off I went to do a little fishing in the park!

I never had much faith in crankbaits because I never really caught anything with it when I tied it on. And when I never get any hits, I switch out to something else and never really go back later. But today I wanted to focus on using just the squarebill crankbaits. I tied on a cheap Jaw Bone branded crankbait from Dick’s Sporting Goods and went about casting it along the margins.

It received no hits at all as I slowly made my way around the pond. Eventually, I get to a large rock point that juts out into this pond and cast the lure across to the reeds on the other bank. I had never caught anything from section of water, since the water is very shallow and flat. But today as I cranked the little bait back towards me, I felt an unmistakable hit and pull back on the rod! It pulled out from the lips of the bass and came flying back towards me. I was devastated! It felt like a good sized bass! Undeterred I casted the lure back into the same pocket of water and slowly cranked back! BAM! The bass came back to hit it and this time the hookset caught the lips. The fight was on! It was heavy and I fought the fish. I’ve only caught a 2.8 lb bass before, but this definitely felt bigger.

It was pulling drag and swimming out from the shallow water, but I managed to turn its head towards me. Now the bass is close to the rocks and with one last heave. The bass is landed! I quicker lipped it and held it up. The face was so meaty, the lips so fat. It was barely hooked, but the rear treble had found purchase in the upper lips on the bass.

On Sunday, I made my way to the pond for bass fishing and soon got caught in a unexpectedly heavy shower that well… only lasted 15 minutes. I’ve learnt standing under trees is almost as good as an umbrella when you don’t have one. I must emphasize that is it TREES.

After the nice afternoon shower, I found a bass roaming about at the top of the water column on the far side of the pond. I tied on my homemade green monster topwater lure and went after it. Bam! The first hit was a miss. I recast it out to him again. Bam! This time a solid hookset! I pulled him in.

A closer look at the lure and bass.

This was my second topwater bass. The first one was this little guy. He just hit the lure after it landed in the water. I suspect he was biting on the “side” eyes I painted, which you can’t see in this picture.

The trick worm works but I am bad at feeling for the bites and setting the hook. So far I’ve lost 9 fishes right at the bank because I didn’t feel it. I saw the beautiful white belly of the bass as it release my worm 9 times. However, I did manage to catch two little bass on the trick worm.

I met Dennis to fish for largemouth bass at the pond. I was dropping a bullet weight Texas rigged trick worm into the bushes along the margins. It was painfully slow – no bites or misses. Though I saw beautiful carps tailing and feeding, I didn’t want to “give up” and switch over to carp.

Eventually, I gave up on the worm and tied on a new bait that I bought over the week – a red lipless crankbait. I was throwing it around to see how it sinks and swims. It looked good and I walked over to Dennis to show him.

He was fishing in a really shallow spot that probably has around 2-3 feet of water. I plopped the bait into the water at our feet and BAM a bass that was lurking in a dark corner comes straight out for it. It was amazing to see the speed and ferocity of the bass. Dennis was just shocked that the bass was right there while he was throwing his senkos far out to the weeds on the opposing bank. It weighted about a pound. The largest I’ve caught this season.

Last night, I met Dennis at the lake to teach him the simple way to catch carp! We wanted to use bread, but when I arrived it was so windy. We wouldn’t be able to fish with bread on the surface. Hence, we switched to corn that would let us fish the bottom!

It was 37 degrees and we were the only two foolish fisherman out there. We chummed the water, and cast out our little corn bait hair-rigs. No carp. We’re getting cold and started talking about food. Bad sign. Our discipline and resolve to catch carp was diminishing as the wind howled at us. But recalling the carp videos on youtube, we decided to chum another fishy looking spot at the far corn from where we were to hit if the current spot wasn’t getting any hits. Lesson learnt, always chum another spot.

We moved our rods over. Bam! Dennis’s rod was zipping off. I was shouting instructions to turn up the drag so the fish doesn’t go too far. The fish ended up swimming all the way to our previous spot. I was ready with the net and got her in just as the hook came off. All thoughts of food and leaving to find food disappeared! Soon, my rod is zipping off as well!

Last Sunday, I went out with my fiancee to the pond for some sunfish! We started with some small little plastic worms, but were having such a hard time getting the sunfish to bite. We cheated and switched to bread! Volia!

Later, she had to go off and I went to the lake for some carp! On the way, I spied another angler fishing for bass at my spot. So I made a detour to try the opposing bank, which required some climbing to get to. I could see the carps tailing in the water. But the trees made my regular roll cast incredibly difficult. I had to switch to my left and it just wasn’t working out.

I shouted over said hi, and told him I was going to join him there. He was nice enough and soon we were both fishing together. Although, we were close, it was good training and afforded a lot more space than the other spot.

A few casts and I was on to a carp that zipped off and broke my line after tangling it with a brush pile. Smart carp. Well, a few hours later I was on another carp, that was so small it did not pull any line out. It too managed to put my line though a tree brunch. Later, I would lose another carp. Yay for the little one!